Former cop Aaron Townsend convicted after stalking teen at Singleton, accessing database

Aaron Paul Townsend, 28, sat in Singleton court on Wednesday while the 17-year-old girl he harassed and followed into the toilets before asking if she wanted to touch his "boner" described how his actions on December 29, 2022 had impacted her.

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Magistrate Kevin Hockey said he had taken into account the impact the incident had on the young, vulnerable victim, who was a child at the time.

"The offender made comments to her which were totally inappropriate and made some suggestions to her that clearly caused her fear and concern," he said.

At the time, Townsend was working as a probationary constable at Muswellbrook and had visited Singleton to have his car serviced on a day off, he has reportedly since been sacked.

At about 9.45am, the victim was eating at a table when she looked up to see Townsend staring at her.

When she realised, she felt so uncomfortable that she moved to a different table to block his view, but instead of giving up, Townsend walked to the bin and sat even closer.

Eventually the girl went to the parents' room and locked the door, when she heard someone breathing and saw the lock jiggle about five times as if someone was trying to open it.

She heard the door to the unisex toilet creak open but didn't hear it close, after a few minutes she thought it was safe to leave when she saw Townsend peeping through a crack in the toilet door.

Once back in the restaurant, Townsend sat across from her and told her his name was 'Alex'.

The victim started sending Snapchat messages to her friend, telling her, "dude I'm so scared", "I'm so scared, he asked me if I wanna see down there, he gives of [sic] rape vibes".

According to police evidence, Townsend said, "sorry for staring at you and eye humping, but I was staring. This might be a bit forward but you're hot, you're okay," making an 'OK' sign with his fingers.

"I'm trying to hide down there," he said, pointing at his crotch.

"My boner, do you want to touch it?"

When the victim refused, Townsend suggested they go to the parents' room before she made an excuse to get away from him and asked staff at the fast food restaurant to hide her.

"There's a guy that's been following me, it's freaked me out," she told staff, visibly shaking and crying.

Eventually Townsend left the McDonald's and the victim reported the incident to Singleton police.

Using his job as a cop to his advantage, Townsend later accessed restricted police data to search the victim's name and Singleton McDonald's on January 2 about 7.18am.

He did the same thing again twice on February 6 at 11.59am and 12.03pm, stating the reason he was looking it up in the system as 'Singleton Station Duty'.

Magistrate Hockey said Townsend needed to be made accountable for his 'impulsive' behaviour and denounced his actions.

"There is that component in relation to sentencing of this matter that the defendant was a member of the NSW Police Force at the time and he had access to material others would not have," he said.

"There's a significant breach of trust in the commission of the three accessing restricted data offences."

Two months later, CCTV from the McDonald's restaurant was passed around to police where a colleague identified Townsend as the offender.

He was called to Singleton police station and declined an interview, but confirmed his car was being serviced in the area at the time.

Townsend later pleaded guilty to three counts of accessing or modifying restricted data, and a charge of stalking and intimidating.

He was fined $1000 for each time he unlawfully accessed police data and was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order for stalking.

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